Celeriac, though the ugliest duckling in the brood of ugly ducklings that is root vegetables, has one characteristic that pardons it entirely from its optic misdemeanours – its distinctive flavour. With a peppery quality similar to that of stem celery it’ll come as no surprise that celeriac is actually a variety of celery, cultivated across several continents for its enlarged hypocotyl (no prizes for guessing which bit that is). As with most root vegetables, celeriac can be prepared in any number of ways, though it is most commonly found in soup as a result of its powerful flavour and pleasing texture. It you’d like to try it in another form, you could try adding it to my root vegetable mash.

Like this:

Potatoes are and always will rank amongst my favourite vegetables. The humble spud is flavoursome, versatile and about as frugal as it is possible to be. However, in some ways sweet potatoes are superior to traditional tatties. Indeed, one of their most endearing qualities, if a vegetable can be endearing, is that their texture is naturally more buttery and pleasant than that of one’s average tater, whatever the variety. The benefit of this is that sweet potatoes mash incredibly well, without the need of a plethora of dairy products. Even without butter or milk, this mash manages to delicately caress one’s tongue – to me it seems like pure madness that some similar recipes insist on incorporating double cream! Then again, this is a place for the frugal, so that would have to be my reaction!